New records from the southern North Sea and first records from the Baltic Sea of Kornmannia leptoderma

Abstract

Abstract Combined genetic, morphological and ontogenetic observations show that the circumarctic boreal green algal macrophyte Kornmannia leptoderma has expanded its distribution range into the Baltic Sea, on a German coastal section of 220 km length. The species is also again (or still) established at its former extreme southern distribution limit in the North Sea, the German island of Helgoland, where it has not been detected during the last four decades. Macroscopic visible sporophytes of K. leptoderma are nowadays present in the Baltic Sea and at Helgoland from February to September, while they were in the past only detected from February to May at Helgoland. This capacity for formation of sporophytes in summer correlates with the circumstance that K. leptoderma from the Baltic Sea can complete its life cycle at 15°C while several studies conducted decades ago with material from Helgoland and from Pacific coasts consistently reported an inhibition of the algal gametogenesis at temperatures that exceed 12°C. Possibly K. leptoderma has undergone adaptations that facilitate its spread into warmer environments, unless the Kornmannia present in the Baltic Sea and on Helgoland today represents a newly introduced cryptic species.